Recoating should be done when your floor begins to show wear. A recoat will quickly rejuvenate the floor’s resilience.

Never damp mop a wood floor.

Floors should be cleaned once every 1-2 weeks.

Remove wet spills promptly using a soft cotton cloth.

Do not use wax, oil soap, vinegar or other household cleaners. These products can dull the finish and make future cleaning and re-coating difficult.

We recommend the Bona floor care system.

What’s the difference between prefinished and unfinished Hardwood Flooring?

One of the biggest questions that comes up is whether prefinished wood flooring, or solid unfinished flooring (which is installed, sanded, and finished on site), is right for you.

Prefinished hardwood flooring definitely has its advantages such as:

Ease of installation: Installers usually only need a day (depending on the floor size) to complete the job with no sanding, and no finishes used on site.

Because the pre-finished floor already has been coated, usually multiple times, at the factory - and therefore does not have to be sanded and finished on-site, it is more convenient to install.

Also because of the multiple coats of finish applied at the factory, prefinished wood flooring has a very durable wear layer, and the finish itself is under warranty by the manufacturer.

Even with these strong advantages, pre-finished flooring has its disadvantages to consider as well.

Pre-finished flooring can have dirt traps and can be difficlut to clean between the cracks, since the cracks are not sealed at the job site. Solid site finished flooring is sanded and sealed at the job site.

When refinishing pre-finished flooring, it is necessary to remove a lot more wood to get a level floor, so in effect you are losing more wood and more life of the floor in the very first refinish than with a solid 3/4" hardwood floor.

Although pre-finished floors are convenient, in that they install without sanding and finishing, most have a beveled edge on the wood strips which some people find unsightly. A custom sanded hardwood floor has a smoother appearance and is perfectly flat-looking .

A pre-finished floor will maintain height irregularities of the substrate. In short, a bump in the sub floor means a bump in the pre-finished floor unless the sub floor is fixed first. Site finished flooring is sanded flat, so has slight irregularities or slight height variations.

If your pre-finished floor gets damaged, it means ripping out a whole section of flooring and completely replacing it, to correct it, whereas site-finished hardwood flooring can, in most cases, be easily fixed with a quick sanding and finish.

Over time, and possibly when there is a change of homeowner, many people don't know or forget the actual manufacturer of their pre-finished flooring product. This can make it much more difficult to get an exact match if board replacements are necessary at some point - or if they want to add additional flooring to other rooms of the home, and they want an exact match. Additionally some of the flooring may be discontinued, eliminating the availability to order in more if it becomes necessary to match.

Site finished flooring allows for you to customize your color and gloss level of finish. This is a great option when you are trying to match other woods that you are using in the area of your hardwood floor installation.

It’s sanding day. What do we do?

At Suttles we love to restore the beauty to a hardwood floor. There are a few things we need you to help us out with to get started.

Our big sanding machine is 230V and plugs into a dryer or range type of outlet. We will need to make sure you have a plug available (most homes do) and that we can get to it.

Due to the fact your floors will be wet at different times of the week of sanding and finishing, you will need to make arrangements for you and your pets to stay somewhere else.

No walking on the floor for a full 24 hours after last application of finish.

Stable heating and cooling in the home will facilitate the drying and curing process, so please keep heat or a stable and warm temp of approximately 72 degrees during finish drying.

Gas and pilot lights should be turned off during the week of sanding and finishing.